How to get bookings for Festivals?

It's funny isn't it? How ppl whinge they can't get a gig, and they claim they'll lose artistic integrity of they let got & conform more to what the festival promoters want.

If you're not willing to work with the promoters to give them a reason to book you, then you have no reason to complain.

I'm sorry Khaos Sektor but I can tell you now you're "dark" style won't get you gigs at big festivals. Most ppl don't enjoy harder full on, let alone dark Psy, so promoters won't book ppl who only make that sound. They want to sell tickets and have packed dance floors. Big festivals are about profit. Profit requires a product that sells, and unless you can provide that product then you won't be booked. It's a simple equation.

Hey I love dj'ing glitch & idm but that doesn't get me paid gigs so I have a collection of tunes that make my ears bled their so EDM awful but I'd rather get paid to dj bad music than slave away in a retail, office or cafe job. And it makes the gigs where I get to play the music I like all the more special.
Revisiting the past.

On 2015-10-06 01:50, OzMike wrote:
It's funny isn't it? How ppl whinge they can't get a gig, and they claim they'll lose artistic integrity of they let got & conform more to what the festival promoters want.

If you're not willing to work with the promoters to give them a reason to book you, then you have no reason to complain.

I'm sorry Khaos Sektor but I can tell you now you're "dark" style won't get you gigs at big festivals. Most ppl don't enjoy harder full on, let alone dark Psy, so promoters won't book ppl who only make that sound. They want to sell tickets and have packed dance floors. Big festivals are about profit. Profit requires a product that sells, and unless you can provide that product then you won't be booked. It's a simple equation.

Hey I love dj'ing glitch & idm but that doesn't get me paid gigs so I have a collection of tunes that make my ears bled their so EDM awful but I'd rather get paid to dj bad music than slave away in a retail, office or cafe job. And it makes the gigs where I get to play the music I like all the more special.

did you try some more underground festival? even free ones or on donation,you may play for free dunno if it s a problem for you.
in portugal and spain there is many great festivals and parties, i spend some times there in spring and got amazed by all the great parties and beautiful people there,the scene is great, starting from spring (just after the goa season ) it get warm and there is small festivals every weekends between those 2 countries and it's underground , all style of psytrance from dark to goa are played,but you may have to play for free..

try festival like konfussion, own spirit festival, freakency to name a few

[quote]
On 2015-10-09 16:33, PoM wrote:
did you try some more underground festival? even free ones or on donation,you may play for free dunno if it s a problem for you.
in portugal and spain there is many great festivals and parties, i spend some times there in spring and got amazed by all the great parties and beautiful people there,the scene is great, starting from spring (just after the goa season ) it get warm and there is small festivals every weekends between those 2 countries and it's underground , all style of psytrance from dark to goa are played,but you may have to play for free..

try festival like konfussion, own spirit festival, freakency to name a few
[/quote
i know some but they want free so im away from that kind of "festivals"

Are you trying the festivals that are more orientated towards the darker, harder side of psy? I think your music is some of the best sounding dark/forest type stuff and you'd be a great fit for a festival like Lost Theory, MoDem, Freqs etc.

Are you trying the festivals that are more orientated towards the darker, harder side of psy? I think your music is some of the best sounding dark/forest type stuff and you'd be a great fit for a festival like Lost Theory, MoDem, Freqs etc.

i try to send emails but no chance, and i guess the line up is always the same every year so...

Just thinking about this thread. One of the problems is that psytrance is so vast age wise now, with every year there are new producers, in their early 20s ready to make music, market, do everything that's needed. They have age and energy on their side, and ready to kiss ass, so advice to them would be very different when comparing to advice for a psytrance veteran ... someone in their late 30s to late 40s, who has seen many cycles and is not ready to kiss ass with the "possibility" that they might be booked.

This at the end is the promoters responsibility to understand the difference. Unfortunately promoters also have become lazy and impatient. In their minds they think... Why go digging for veteran cranky acts when you can just pick one very enthusiastic thankful one from the 10000 applications for 1/10th the cost?

There are so many unbooked veterans especially in the Psychedelic Chillout scene. It's always going to be like this. Just do your thing and hope you get noticed. Maybe have a standard application that you send to all festival promoters 6-7 months before they happen... and try to create a proper organic fan following online by releasing music/tutorials/videos etc. You cannot do much more, and you should not have to.

There are almost no professions to which the same logic of thinking could be applied. I can't think of even one profession where a 25 years old professional is more preferred than a 45 years old one. And most people would probably immediately cancel their medical appointment if they hear that their doctor is 25 years old. Imagine how would you react if a 25 years old makes an offer to build your house...

May be this logic could only be applied to sports or other areas connected to how you look like, but I have been told for so many years in the trance environment that being a good dj has nothing to do with how you look like - was this a lie? I don't think it was. Making the crowd to be eager to pay for a show with you, on the other side, might have to do with such issues - but even in this concern I think that more exprience and more wisdom actually help to understand markets much better. Why is it such a difficult quest to offer the exprience that people, who have money, are ready to pay for? Why do people pay 500 euro for a weekend as a yoga retreat in the forest for example and what makes the organizers of such things more attractive?

I have a friend who was like most of you here in this concern, djing a lot earlier, then having no bookings any more for years. He decided to do a late education and had a very hard time financially for a very long time. In his case he had luck that I had no such troubles at all and helped. But at the end of this all, I am somehow not very excited about the idea of living this kind of "solid life" - I was happy to help but not so excited to go this path till the end... If this was the life to choose, I would have chosen it much earlier. Earlier, many years earlier, it was a cool thing to be together with people djing and travelling around, today this is a strange dramatic experience.